This was in almost all
respects a distinguished recital, at least as much for Leif Ove Andsnes’s
playing as for Matthias Goerne’s singing; indeed, had I to choose, I should say
that Andsnes was on even better form, quite rightly seeming to have lavished
just as much consideration on the recital as he would, had it been a solo
performance. My sole cavil lay with the Shostakovich songs themselves. Perhaps
an all-Mahler recital might have been a little too much, perhaps not; however,
there would surely have been songs of a similar stature to have programmed with
Mahler. It was an interesting idea, and in that respect, should be commended,
to intersperse six songs from Shostakovich’s Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarotti, op.145, but the level
of musical invention, as so often with this composer, was not high, leaving the
songs, however well performed, to offer a degree of filling, even relief,
rather than fully to complement Mahler.

The concert opened with a
rare moment of relative optimism: the Rückert Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft. Andsnes’s introduction offered
magical touch and an almost Boulezian clarity: it is, as with many of these
songs, difficult not to think of the orchestra, but it is a tribute to Andsnes
how fully he matched both pianistic and orchestral expectations. Bot artists
imparted, even in this first song, a strong impression of wonder; there was no sense
of warming up. Dissonance really bit upon the ‘Hand’ of ‘von lieber Hand’.
Telling, true rubato – in the sense of robbed time rather than tempo
modification – heightened the shaping of phrases. Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen benefited from a piano part so
detailed, so evocative in performance that again, the orchestra was not missed
at all; it almost seemed to be present, yet with an intimacy of scale that was
the duo’s – and the Wigmore Hall’s – own. Goerne offered a variety of ‘voices’,
whilst maintaining continuity. And a true spareness of writing emerged. In
between those two Mahler songs came Shostakovich’s Morning: spare or merely empty? Itsounded rather like Russian Britten (the note-spinning of a work
such as Death in Venice). Goerne brought
an apt parlando style of delivery to
the recitative-like writing. The performance of Separation did its very best to rescue the song from generalised
gloom.

It was striking to hear the Wunderhorn song, Es sungen drei Engel einen süßen Gesang as a song rather than as a
movement of the Third Symphony – though it is well-nigh impossible to rid oneself
of the memory not only of the orchestra but also of the boys’ choir. There was,
though, a fine sense of dramatic narrative to the performance. Das irdische Leben was febrile, with an
understated yet undeniably present fury, a terror emerging of which
Shostakovich could at best only dream. Liszt and Wagner seemed very much
influences upon the following two Rückert songs, Andsnes clearly relishing that
Romantic harmonic background. He proved equally distinguished at laying bare
Mahler’s musical processes, having Wenn
die Mütterlein chill one’s bones all the more. It is no easy task to impart
unity to the piano version of Urlicht,
but Andsnes and Goerne experienced no problems whatsoever.

Andsnes evidently took as
much care with the musical line of Shostakovich’s Night as he would have done with a solo work. He brought out the
all-too-obvious ‘quirkiness’ of Immortality,
and there could be no faulting strength or starkness in the performance from
either artists of Death. It was
always a relief, though, to return to Mahler. The musical line of Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen sounded
as perfectly formed as that of a Beethoven slow movement, whilst rhythm and
harmonic rhythm proved properly generative in Revelge. Goerne’s dark, furious vocal delivery stayed just (about)
the right side of hectoring here. This seemed a far better response, albeit avant la lettre, to Michael Gove’s militaristic
idiocy, than any I have yet heard. Der
Tambourg’sell sounded especially arresting with piano, the drumrolls having
more than a hint of Bartók (perhaps not coincidentally, an Andsnes speciality)
to them. The bleakness of onward trudge and sepulchral close hung over the
aspiring Hoffnung of the Beethovenian
encore. As in the recital as a whole, there were no easy answers, perhaps no
answers at all.